Nicole Townsend is a Black, Queer, Woman who has been organizing in the South for nearly ten years around environmental justice, police accountability, queer & trans liberation, and cash bail. She formally stepped into organizing in 2010 after a string of LGBTQ hate crimes occurred, right here in Asheville, using poetry as a medium to bring awareness to injustice. She is currently the Regional Organizer at Southerners On New Ground where she co-facilitators the Black Mama’s Bail Out Actions, that has led to over 400 Black Mothers and caregivers no longer having to be locked in a cage because they can’t afford their bail. Nicole is a board member of the Human Relations Council of Asheville and Asheville Writers in Schools and Community. She is also a member of the CoThinkk Giving Circle and deeply believes that there is power in collective community philanthropy. She is the recipient of the Blue Ridge Pride Leadership Award, CoThinkk Leadership Award, and the Tzedek Brilliance Award. Nicole was also selected to be a participant in the Peer2Peer Exchange Cohort, which was comprised of 25 people of color directly impacted by the criminal punitive system, who embarked on a one year journey to deepen their analysis around transformative justice and alternatives to policing.  When she is not organizing campaigns across the South she enjoys supporting the capacity of local collectives and organizations by offering her skills as a grant writer at little to no cost, as well as offering her home as meeting space. She is the proud granddaughter of a Mississippi sharecropper and finds herself most at home when she is in the rural South, where the sun shines brighter, and the tea is a little sweeter.